Moses spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai. There he prayed and experienced the presence of God and returned to give his people the covenant with God. As Moses came down from the mountain, he did not realize that the skin of his face had become radiant. (Exodus 34: 28-9). Moses had to veil his face whenever he met with the people. He would be so radiant that they would be afraid of him.

Sometimes in our own lives there is a veil of separation. In a way it is the opposite of the veil of radiance between Moses and his people. In fact, it can be a veil that separates us from God’s presence in the "Moses" in our life. Our task is to remove such a veil, if it exists, so that we open our eyes and really see what is right in front of us.

It is easy to be awed by extraordinary people like Mother Teresa. But we know that Christ’s dazzling presence is in the ordinary just as truly. It is in the mother who stays up at night with a sick child; it is in the neighbor who does us a kindness; the politician who takes a moral stand based on principle, not popularity; the child who runs to us with open arms; the welfare father who is working two jobs and struggling to provide food and healthcare for his family. For the face of God is revealed to us every day. It might be as simple as when you find yourself today crossing the room just to instinctively be with certain people. There is a goodness about them that is attractive. It is God’s glory embodied within them.

The people around Moses needed him to put on a veil in order to look at him. We might need to take off the veil so that we can look past the ordinary and exterior and be awed by the extraordinary and interior. It is there. It is truly there.

Jean Marie Hiesberger